Hello and salutations to all my blog followers out there who have been ignored for the past couple months! There’s this thing that has been getting in the way of my photo blog blogging… and for the past six months that’s been my new position at the Los Angeles Register as the Community Engagement Editor. […]

Sometimes between the city council election and city government stories I get to spend an afternoon with somebody who really warms my heart with their attitude and story. Liz Cantine, a Palos Verdes woman who teaches children with special needs to dance, was just that kind of person. She was glowing, chipper, full of energy […]

I want you to meet an amazing man… This is Lowell- On August 25, Hermosa Beach resident Lowell Stirratt celebrated 100th his birthday and entered an elite group of people who have been alive a century. “I’ve lived to be 100 because I don’t sweat the small stuff,” Stirratt said. “Laugh and be happy. If […]

John and I tied the knot in mid October in a BEAUTIFUL Southern California wedding. The weather was perfect, the wedding went flawlessly (that I know of) and the groom was pretty cute! Here are a few photos from the amazing week and even some from our honeymoon in Big Sur.

Hello and salutations to all my blog followers out there who have been ignored for the past couple months!

There’s this thing that has been getting in the way of my photo blog blogging… and for the past six months that’s been my new position at the Los Angeles Register as the Community Engagement Editor. (*Backstory… After my paper, the Easy Reader News, was purchased by Freedom Communications, I was moved up from the Hermosa Beach beat and given an opportunity to try something new!)

That is what I want to share with you today, at least partially.

Additionally, for the past year I have been running a South Bay fashion “street style” blog and luckily the LA Register has allowed me to incorporate that into my weekly duties. During the past few months I’ve been in charge of a new feature, the LA ‘Street Style’ page. It’s been really fun getting to know areas of L.A. and I’ve also had the opportunity to meet so many amazing people as well! My fashion sense is a little dull… but I’ve definitely been learning more about fashion, colors and clothing as well as the attitude that is necessary to pull off an outfit, no matter how that person is dressed!

As always, keep checking out my Instagram and to all those kitty calendar fans out there, we are dutifully working on the next one! This year’s theme – TV and Movies…. (Downton Tabby, Pawshank Redemption, Wizard of Paws.. etc.) Suggestions are appreciated!

Sometimes between the city council election and city government stories I get to spend an afternoon with somebody who really warms my heart with their attitude and story. Liz Cantine, a Palos Verdes woman who teaches children with special needs to dance, was just that kind of person. She was glowing, chipper, full of energy and made me feel good just being near her. I’m happy there are such wonderful people in this world! Sometimes I forget.

On August 25, Hermosa Beach resident Lowell Stirratt celebrated 100th his birthday and entered an elite group of people who have been alive a century.

“I’ve lived to be 100 because I don’t sweat the small stuff,” Stirratt said. “Laugh and be happy. If you become unhappy, move. I’ve done that a number of times.”

According to the U.S. Census, only 1.73 people out of 10,000 people live to be centenarians. Over his birthday weekend, his daughter Kathy Ochner, 63, hosted a party at her home in San Pedro and invited all of his remaining friends and relatives to celebrate the milestone. Ochner hired a limo to get him from his house to the party location, but he refused the chauffer service.

“I drove myself,” Stirratt said, matter-of-factly.

Over 84 people attended the party to celebrate Stirratt’s 100-year success.

Nailed to a tree outside his Hermosa Beach home, Lowell reads a homemade poetry scroll that features many of his original work. Photo by Chelsea Sektnan

“I just enjoyed swapping stories and seeing everybody,” Stirratt said. “You know, some of them I wouldn’t have recognized if I saw them on the street because they’ve changed so much.”

Stirratt has five grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild on the way.

“My two brothers and sister have all passed on, and my two sons,” Stirratt said. “And so I’m pretty much up there at the top of the heap.”

Stirratt was born in 1913 and grew up on a farm near Prescott, Wisconsin. Growing up he worked the farm, outlived the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and survived polio. After moving to Minnesota with his wife Clara, he worked at the White Motor Company for three years and continued on to work at over 17 other mechanically-centered jobs throughout his lifetime. After his kids were born, most of his family had left the Midwest and moved to California. Following his family’s lead, Stirratt moved to Hermosa Beach in 1952 with their four children, Linda, Kathy, Roland and Vernon.

“We got tired of July, August and winter in Minnesota, and so it just happened that we decided we were going to come here, not knowing how we were going to manage that,” Stirrat said. “A man came into [the White Motor Company] and bought two tractor-trailer rigs and he was looking for someone to drive one so the salesman hooked him up with me and I agreed to drive his truck out here if he would leave me room enough for my furniture. And that’s just what we did.”

The family of five drove the almost 2,000-mile long trip, trading off the four kids between the tractor-trailer rig and a new 1950 Dodge Wayfarer.

“We rented a house three blocks back from the beach,” said Stirrat. “The rent was reasonable, you wouldn’t believe the price – I think it was $90 a month. Then when I bought this house the payment was $68 a month.”

Lowell laughs at the amount of stuff in his garage after showing off a tractor he made from scratch. Photo by Chelsea Sektnan

He added that at the time, his job at an iron works shop in Redondo Beach paid him $1.25 an hour.

“It wasn’t a heck of a lot of money, but like I said, everything was relative. It all worked out,” said Stirrat.

He moved his family to a home near Prospect Avenue on Golden Avenue three years after moving to Hermosa Beach and hasn’t moved since.

“You couldn’t roller skate on the road. It was just a plain ole dirt street,” Stirrat said, about the first few years in North Hermosa. “When we moved here there was a vacant lot on the corner and a small house where that big apartment is going up.”

He also had a view that stretched all the way from Palos Verdes to Malibu. Now a large ‘mega-mansion’ blocks his view.

“The biggest change in Hermosa Beach is probably the mansionization of the city,” Stirrat said, while looking at the neighbor’s homes. “When you drove along Prospect Avenue there were just little houses along the way. Now they’re all big apartments and huge houses. The same thing will happen here when we’re through with this house; two big buildings will go up. We’re getting squeezed out.”

His wife Clara died of cancer in 1978. Shortly after he met his second wife, Gloria, now 90. They will be married for 35 years in October.

After retiring at the age of 70, Stirrat has kept busy.

“It’s impossible for me to sit still and just read or doing nothing,” said Stirrat. “I have a real nice little shop in the garage so I would make all kinds of stuff down there.”

A favorite project of his is a small 1930s Allis Chalmers tractor that he built from scratch and used to ride in parades around the South Bay. Dotted around his yard are years of projects that sprouted from scrap in his garage.

“I still have livestock,” he said while walking down the driveway to his workshop, pointing to two metal pigs made of gas tanks, a funnel, glass bottles and other unidentifiable parts.

On the porch in his backyard he also has a homemade treadmill, a small German-style house-turned fountain and a bench made to look like half of a covered wagon.

“He stays busy, he’s always doing something,” Ochner said while pointing out more homemade inventions, like a drum.

“I was sitting watching the symphony one day and thought, ‘I wonder why nobody has a metal violin, somebody’s gotta have that!’ So I made one,” Stirrat said. “I’m probably the only person with a metal violin.”

His musical invention, a true-to-size violin made of aluminum that he has dubbed an ‘Alumiviol,’ sounds almost identical to a violin, only a little more metallic and sharp. Only two parts of his invention are made from actual violin parts – the strings and the chin rest. The bridge, which holds up the strings, features a drilled letter A and instead of being on the top of the violin, the decorative but functional F holes are drilled circles along the edge of the instrument for better stability, Stirrat said. The bow, with “hair” made from screen door wire, pulls across the strings almost exactly like a traditional horse hair bow.

Stirrat’s hobbies don’t focus strictly on mechanical feats. Outside his home nailed to a tree he’s secured a glass-fronted box with a scroll of original poetry for the neighbor kids to read.

“It’s been up there for maybe five years or so,” Stirrat said. “You see, that’s just it. I’m an outgoing person so that’s probably one of the reasons I put it out there because I have all these poems in this book and nobody sees ‘em.”

Lowell Stirratt at his 100th birthday party with his daughters Kathy and Linda. Photo submitted by Kathy

The skill for writing poetry, he said, runs in the family.

“My Aunt Maude Doolittle wrote poems and my mother also wrote a few so it musta been passed down to me,” said Stirrat. “I started writing them maybe 12 years ago. I just got to thinking about stuff, about the farm and different things like where I’d been and the thoughts would just sorta run through my head, so I wrote them down.”

Stirrat and Gloria added that they have lived in Hermosa Beach for so long because it’s a small community.

“You get to know your neighbors and the weather never gets too hot and we always have a nice sea breeze,” said Stirrat. “It’s a pretty much a pleasant place to live. So that’s about it, I guess.” ER

John and I tied the knot in mid October in a BEAUTIFUL Southern California wedding. The weather was perfect, the wedding went flawlessly (that I know of) and the groom was pretty cute! Here are a few photos from the amazing week and even some from our honeymoon in Big Sur.

The very first ‘Schreiber Family Kitty Calendar’ is finally finished! Due to the amount of emails and messages I’ve received from people asking where they can buy it, I uploaded it to Lulu.com and you can buy it for $18.99. If you’re Christmas present getting friends or family… you’ll probably find one of these babies in your stocking.

All proceeds (The $5.60 I get per calendar after printing) will go towards vet bills to cure Presley’s irritable kitty bowel syndrome, and of course… more costumes.

(Yes- AP Style guide buffs, I understand it’s not annual until something’s done three times and this is the first calendar… But it is going to happen every year from here on out so I might as well start with a cohesive title.)

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

*No animals were harmed in the making of this calendar. Actually, they were very forgiving and even cuddled with us afterwards.

Saturday’s National Red Bull Flugtag human-powered flying competition in Long Beach saw the brave efforts of local Hermosa Beach team ‘Game of Throwns,’ as they pushed local pilot Kirsti Davis off a three-story pier in an effort to clinch a national title and Redbull prestige. The team’s Styrofoam dragon flew 44 feet, just short of the day’s 254 feet record. However, Davis was able to stay atop the dragon until impact, 28 feet below the pier – a feat many of the 27 flying machines were unable to achieve. Photo by Chelsea Sektnan

Five “Game of Thrones” fans walked into a bar on Cinco de Mayo and walked out with an unexpected idea drawn on a napkin. They would design a dragon-shaped aircraft to fly at the 2013 Red Bull Flugtag. Kristi Davis, a Hermosa Beach resident and pilot for Sky West Airlines, would pilot the homemade craft.

An ad for Flugtag on the barroom TV spawned the idea.

“We were sitting around having a good time and we started talking and it came to us that we could do that too,” said Davis. “Anybody can submit an application, and if they think that you can pull off what you say you’re going to do and they like your idea, then they select you. It took them awhile to decide about us.”

The friends had been to the event in Long Beach in 2010 and understood what was involved in the sky-high competition.

“We were watching the crafts go off, and while a few of them actually flew, so many of them went off and fluttered down without really going forward, and a lot of them just fell apart as soon as they hit the air,” said Ryan O’Shea, a team member and bio medical engineer. “We looked at the crafts and thought we could do better than that.”

The group, the “Game of Throwns”, spent countless hours designing and implementing the project in preparation for liftoff at this year’s Red Bull Flugtag in Long Beach on Saturday. They’ll be competing against 32 teams from around the West Coast in an attempt to test their craft by pushing it off the 28-foot high 3-story tall Long Beach pier, or flight deck, with the hopes of gliding safely onto, not into, the water.

“This wacky team will dress up, perform a skit and push their craft, inspired by the dragon in the hit TV show Game of Thrones, off the flight deck in an attempt to fly as far as possible,” a press release for the event said.

Their group happened to have the perfect mix of people to pull off such a feat. Davis hopes that their expertise will keep their “Dragoncraftglider,” the name O’Shea came up for the craft, from just plunging into the ocean without any lift. Davis and her husband Justin, a business consultant, along with O’Shea, graphic designer Evan Squire and aerospace engineer Mike Perrin began working on the plans immediately after getting approved to compete.

“I’m going to sit in the aircraft and the boys are going to push it for 100 feet or so and launch me into the water,” said Davis. “You have to be a little crazy for this; it’s one of the things that qualifies you.”

Squire started making mock-ups of the flying dragon’s design while O’Shea secured a space in his office to build the flying apparatus.

“It’s interesting because I work with a lot of physicists and mechanical engineers and people who have a good understanding of engineering,” said O’Shea. “Most of the aerospace people look at it and don’t really know what we want to accomplish with it – which isn’t to fly really far, but get off the flight deck and catch a little bit of lift so we can glide into the water.”

He added that many of his coworkers have asked him how he expects the dragon is going to fly on Saturday, and that he feels confident in the structural stability of the craft, and hopeful that the specially designed tail will help direct where the craft lands.

“It’s pretty detailed,” Davis said. “The head is made of Styrofoam, and it was carved by hand. It’s pretty amazing. I just saw a block of Styrofoam and Evan somehow saw a dragon head and made it happen.”

The engineers researched previous year’s aircrafts and looked at what worked for the ones that were able to glide safely to the water.

“The thing I noticed that we needed to work on was having a controllable tail,” said O’Shea. “We’re not going to get enough speed – even if we were Olympic sprinters – to get enough lift for what will end up being a 300-lb craft. What you can do is hope for the first few feet of falling that gravity will get enough speed so we don’t nose dive into the water. Whether there’s enough time to build up enough speed is yet to be seen.”

However, O’Shea is confident in Davis’ piloting abilities, and is hopeful that she will be able to stay mounted on top of the 24-foot wingspan of the dragon, like the character of Daenerys Targaryen, known in the show as the “Mother of Dragons.

“I’ve also tried to ensure that she feels comfortable bailing out of the craft if things get hairy,” O’Shea said. “You never can tell until it’s actually out there, but we’re going forward as if it’s going to fly.”

The competition begins at 10 a.m. in Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor. The local team asks that their supporters wear green.

“It started as a design on a napkin, and I look at our aircraft now and it’s crazy to see how far we’ve come,” said Davis.

From Old Hollywood to New Hermosa,

couple spends nearly 70 years together

Ken Green, 92, and Ann Green, 90, have been married for 67 years.

“No,” said their daughter Carrie. “68.”

Ann still thinks it’s 67, despite her daughter’s calculations.

The couple have three children, Dona, Carrie and Kenneth, and live in a duplex with they share with their daughter Dona overlooking Hermosa Beach and the ocean. The couple has a way of talking that can only be understood after many years of marriage. They banter back and forth, interrupting and finishing each other’s sentences while stopping for long moments to wade through memories of their first years together. After almost 70 years, communication and life alongside each other has become well-worn habit.

Ann said they wouldn’t trade it for the world. For the past couple years, Ken has been battling the early stages of dementia, struggling at times with memory. Ann has remained right at his side, helping him through his day-to-day life. Some days are better than others, they say, but what gets them through each day is their devotion to one another and their shared past.

“We got married in 1945 after the war and started our own,” said Ken, with a smirk.

“We knew each other three months,” said Ann. “We went to the courthouse in Burbank, but I don’t know what we did after that.”

“We paid 10 to 15 bucks and that was it,” Ken said about the wedding and marriage license.

Ken’s still not sure how he knew they were right for each other. “We probably drank too much,” he said.

“He always says he was drunk when he asked me to marry him,” Ann said. “I guess it worked.”

After they got married, Ken said, smiling, that the two “sobered up.”

Ken remembers that they went to dinner with their good friend racecar driver Johnnie Parsons and other friends to celebrate.

Gas was difficult to get at the time because of the war, so they didn’t go far for their honeymoon and stayed at the Coconut Grove in Hollywood. They went back to work a few days after the wedding.

They still have a photograph that was shot on their very first date.

Ken and Ann Green have been married for at least 67 years. On their first date at a club in Hollywood a photographer snapped a photo of the couple spending an evening together. Photo by Chelsea Sektnan

Ken said he thinks they stayed together for more than 65 years because “if you really love somebody, you’ll never leave ‘em.”

Ann thinks that you only get lucky once, and you have to trust each other.

“Make sure you love them,” added Ken.

The couple worked at Bendix in North Hollywood making Mae West radios. If something was broken, Ken fixed it. Ann worked at the same place and did the wiring and soldering for the radios. Ken was also a tool maker and helped make airplanes and submarines. Eventually he made his own 38-foot boat in their living room in Granada Hills and was planning on sailing around the world, a plan that never quite came to fruition.

Ann went to school in her hometown, Dallas, to be a welder. She moved to California with a girlfriend and lived with her cousin because she “outgrew Dallas.” Ken came by train from Detroit for the weather.

In the evenings, when she was 21, Ann would get dolled up and join her girlfriends at the Hollywood Palladium or the Brown Derby.

“It was very exciting,” said Ann. “I rode the trolley car all the way from North Hollywood to Hollywood, 10 miles maybe, and we’d dance and have lots of fun. [Hollywood] was very, very nice at that time. The trolley stopped at 2 a.m. and if we didn’t get out in time we’d have to get a taxi or get a ride from a soldier. Five of us would jump in the car and they would take us all the way to the Valley where we were living.”

She loved to kick up her heels and dance the night away. Strangely, she didn’t dance with Ken until after they were married.

“I’d dance with sailors and soldiers,” Ann said. “I even saw Marilyn Monroe at the premiere of ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.’”

“And they do,” Ken said, noting his preference for blondes while making a quickly refuted claim that he once kissed Marilyn Monroe.

They were friends with Frank Sinatra’s bodyguard and often saw Sinatra while he was out on the town. They also saw Gene Autry and John Wayne, among other Hollywood royalty.

Before retiring they owned a motel in Lake Tahoe near Frank Sinatra’s club in Cal Neva. Movie stars and famous bands would stay in their motel during that time.

Ken didn’t like spending time at their motel in the winter, because he didn’t want to shovel snow.

“Why did I leave Detroit then? I coulda stayed there and froze in the snow,” said Ken.

They moved to Palos Verdes in 1980 and ended up in Hermosa Beach in 1986, 27 years ago.

“The way I look it, I ain’t gonna find any place better than what I’ve got here,” said Ken about his home in Hermosa Beach.

They’re both happy with their lives together, and are especially proud of their children and grandchildren.

“We have our ups and downs still, oh but it’s been lovely,” said Ann.

“Oh yeah…” said Ken. His tip to staying married is, “don’t do it.”

“We get along most of the time, but you get old and cranky,” said Ken.

While sitting together on the couch in their Hermosa Beach home with their two daughters watching, Ken snuck a kiss.

My fiancé John and I spent our first engagement anniversary up in Big Sur, a place that I believe to be the most beautiful part of California.

This was the second year in a row we’ve spent vacation time in the area. Last year, John told me we were going camping, drove me hundreds of miles up the coast to a Redwood forest, proposed to me and (after listening to the Cardinals win on the radio) swept me off to what I thought was a campsite but turned out to be a beautiful cabin in the woods at a place called Heart Circle Mountain.

Somehow this year he topped that. It didn’t seem possible, but with the help of some hummingbirds, a bathtub and exquisitely good food, John outdid himself.

He was even more creative this year. He rented a secluded trailer in the woods that overlooked both 54-acres of the jungle-like Big Sur woods and the calm blue Pacific Ocean. The tranquility we experienced defies description; we were in the middle of nowhere, with no cell phone coverage, no TV or Internet and a couple (well more than a couple) bottles of wine and pure, wonderful silence. We’re used to the hustle-and-bustle of L.A. and the never-ending craziness of our jobs as journalists, so turning off our cell phones was just what we needed.

The accommodation was a mile-long walk from where we parked the car. The owner, Richard from Big Sur Vintage Trailers, along with his trusty Australian cattle dog Piha (Pee-HA), met us shortly before dusk. He drove all our belongings to the site on a tiny old school Suzuki SUV.

The type of camping we were about to embark upon is called “glamping” or luxury camping. Usually, John brings me places where we arrive at a campsite just before dusk, have an epic set-up battle with the tent and struggle to make a fire before all the light drains from the sky. Upon arriving at the location with Piha joyfully running along the side of the car and realizing that there was already a place to cook food and a super squishy bed waiting, I was an immediate fan of glamping.

“Big Sur Cabins For Rent is NOT for sissies,” Richard writes on the rental’s website. “Off the Grid – is just that— It’s more rugged than hoteling but not quite roughing it like camping. The trailers are warm, dry and lovingly restored. You can enjoy the view, the high thread count sheets, outdoor (and indoor) showers, and all the utensils you’ll need to create a gourmet meal.”

For Richard, the property is about connecting with nature by disconnecting from the wider-world.

“I don’t try to make it okay for everyone,” he said.

He began renting out his trailer after many friends-of-friends asked him if they could stay on the property. He soon realized it was a place that many people, not just he, found to be spiritually healing.

“We’ve had seven or eight marriage proposals here, not all of them planned,” he said. “Within the framework of Big Sur, there are less people. So people are better able to reconnect.”

The author alone with Joyce Carol Oates.

Flowers that Richard had planted surrounded the trailer and the entrance giving the property the allure of a rustic secret garden. Many of the plants strategically attracted hummingbirds, and in the mornings we woke up to the fast pattering of little hummingbird wings.

Richard fixed up the trailer himself and did all the hard labor of clearing the trees and leveling the ground where we were staying.

“I’m a servant to beauty and spiritual beliefs in nature,” Richard said in a recent interview. “What is it they say – live simply so others may simply live?”

The set-up is rugged, yet energy efficient.

“Guests learn what it’s like to live in balance with nature and have more personal respect about what they are using,” Richard said. “You can’t waste here, whereas in the outside world there’s no attachment or limits to what you use. People learn to recalibrate.”

The turquoise tub was a the most relaxing part of the trip. Photo by Chelsea Sektnan

Italian lights, hung from branches, light the night and add a romantic luster to the property, accompanying the candle-lit glow of the trailer tucked in amid a sweet smelling forest. All electricity is provided by solar panel and propane heats the water for bathing and cooking, which made me more aware of our impact on the land and really opened my eyes to our surroundings.

Richard has lived off the grid since 1991. He is a master stone mason, builder and carpenter, and a skilled horticulturist. He’s planted fruit trees, wisteria, ginger and vegetables around the property. His property is spacious and comfortable, with a hot shower and bath overlooking both the woods and the ocean, a place to cook, and a warm, quiet, peaceful place to sleep.

The magic of the forests in Big Sur is intoxicating.

“I don’t believe in a house,” Richard said. “I don’t think I could live in a house anymore. I once built a fine home and lost it to satisfying a marriage. I’m not a creature of the city, so now I live in authenticity and synchronicity and have spiritual beliefs based on nature.”

Richard and Piha work the land daily. He is currently working on a second trailer and hopes to eventually transform the property into a community of like-minded people.

“I don’t know if we have enough time on the planet to get this place up and functioning, but I’m dedicated to trying,” he said. “There’s 90 years of nature taking back the land from humans, and I’m trying to peel it back as gracefully as I can and find the original handprint of humans.”

He has truly created a retreat. A separate bathroom with a large turquoise tub opened up to the empty green woods and the crazy calming blue waters. Richard provides a small basket of shampoos and even a mason jar of bath salts. Showering outdoors overlooking the Pacific was an experience that was surprisingly freeing, and I took advantage of it as often as one can in a three day period. One night while we were enjoying the tub, there was a small earthquake; we saw the bathtub water ripple from the quiet shaking, yet still felt oddly safe.

Feel free as a bird while sleeping in a nest of twigs at Big Sur Getaway. Photo by Amanda Friedman

We spent an evening hiking to the basin of the mountain and shot our own ‘Save the Date’ photos. The walk down was partially cleared and wholly beautiful. The forest’s lush green trees and intoxicating smell of wet dirt brought me back to almost a year ago when John proposed to me while sitting on a log in the depths of the Big Sur woods. This forest will always hold a special place in my heart and now, after our photo hike, is immortalized in film along with our goofy smiles and a banner announcing our wedding date.

Because the trailer was located a ways from our car it was easy to resist the temptation to do activities outside of the immediate area. Instead we read our books, watched the water and spent the weekend chilling out. My heart rate, usually above normal, finally slowed down to a regular pace, and I was finally able to finish a Joyce Carol Oates book that I had struggled to find time to read in my workaday life. One of the evenings we got really adventurous and braved the trail to the car to get dinner 10 miles away at Nepenthe Restaurant. I’m always amazed at the views in Big Sur, but Nepenthe takes the prize for sunset viewing.

The guest book, located in a nook in the trailer, was filled with praise for the location and Richard’s handy work. The chicken coop that is located about a three minute walk from the trailer seemed to be a huge draw for most of the visitors, and many wrote about their morning excursions with the hens. I grew up on a farm in the Midwest, so when we first got there and Richard gleefully told us that we were allowed to feed the chickens in the morning, he unfortunately got a farm girl’s reaction – another chore? – not his usual city-slicker excitement. The eggs, however, were definitely something to be excited about, and magically showed up somewhere on the property every morning for us to turn into a wonderful meal.

The view from the ‘glampsite’ was unbelievably beautiful and sent a peaceful chill down my spine.

All of the entries in the trailer’s journal reflected the calm, relaxed feeling that we had also experienced. Other visitors clearly spent many reflective hours drawing pictures in the worn pages for the next guest to enjoy. People of all ages and nationalities wrote poetry and waxed long about their adventures. I even had a spurt of creativity and added an entry about my happiness not just at the location, but life in general – a feeling I never have time enough to truly soak up and enjoy.

“People get rejuvenated here and go back recharged and go out in the world and do things,” Richard said.

By the time our weekend was up I was so relaxed that my heart rate was probably below normal and I knew that we would definitely be coming back next year – this time, for our honeymoon.

Glamping options in Big Sur

Big Sur Cabins For Rent and Big Sur Old Growth54915 Highway 1, Big Sur, CA 93920. The property is located 10.5 miles south of Nepenthe Restaurant and the Phoenix Gallery and across the street from Esalen. The Trailers are available at a fixed minimum rate of $350 for the site rental – includes 2 nights. Additional nights are $175.

Located among the redwood trees and along the Big Sur River, Big Sur Camping and Cabins offers both camping and lodging with an emphasis on family. Quiet time lasts from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. daily. Camping cabins start at $110 and pets are allowed for an additional fee.

Tree Bones Resort offers 16 yurt-style camp sites with stunning ocean views full cabin amenities that include WiFi and a plush queen-sized bed. They also boast the only ‘human nest,’ a single campsite that features the a woven wood-art walk-in campsite accessible by ladder. The resort also offers yoga classes three days a week and features Wild Coast Restaurant and Sushi Bar, one of the best sushi bars in the area with beautiful views of the ocean and organic farm-to-table dinners with many of the ingredients grown on the property. They also offer ‘eco-adventures,’ that feature hikes along the coastline as well as ocean kayaking trips. Campsite fees start at $85 while Yurt sites start around $199 breakfast is included.

Big Sur Getaway is owned by a husband and wife pair that renovated their fleet of Airstream trailers together and has a passion for sustainable living. Their trailers invite guests to enjoy a simple lifestyle away from urban life without internet or a microwave. They have three airstream trailers all decked out with comfortable beds and modern decorations. All offer a private outside area with lounge chairs and a gas fire pit. Pets are welcome to stay for free.

“Big Sur Getaway invites you to explore what is not possible in the city,” their website says. “Take a hot outdoor shower under redwood trees, observe wildlife, sit at a fire pit and play the guitar, daydream in the hammock, cook outdoors, stroll on the beach, and so much more!”

Prices start at $175 in the low season and go to $260 in the high season.

Newsflash for everybody who doesn’t talk to me daily (you know who you are) or follow me on Instagram… I’m no longer the Easy Reader News Redondo Beach reporter. After over a year and a half covering Redondo, I relinquished the biggest beach city to a new reporter, and I was moved to Hermosa Beach. So far I’ve been having a great time covering the quirky surf city. It’s filled with a lot of interesting people who do a lot of amazing things in a very sunny California town. Now, all I need to do is get back on a board and join the locals on the water! I wanted to share some impromptu photos I shot with my iPhone while on the job during the first couple months of my new beat…

Photos from my first few months on the job at Easy Reader News as the Hermosa Beach reporter. iPhone photos by Chelsea Sektnan

Sayonara Redondo- Bring it on Hermosa Beach!

For any story ideas, tips or if you just want to chat- please email me at chelsea@easyreadernews.com

I’ve started up our “Working Life” column again by following around some local Hermosans during their day-to-day life. It’s fun to get to peek into somebody else’s life for a day or two, and it’s a great way to get used to my new beat. The best part is, it’s part of my job!

Cody Freckelton spends Saturday morning getting a tattoo of Johnny Carson on his leg. “I think he’s hilarious, he brightens up my day.” Freckleton also has a tattoo of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde done by Gonzalez to represent his struggles with bi polar disorder.

Gabe Gonzalez tattoos a portrait on a client’s leg. The tattoo took more than three hours to do. “[Getting a tattoo] feels a bit like running a finger on a hot sunburn,” said Gonzalez. “But I don’t feel anything, just the joy of tattooing.”

“It’s a pleasure and I’m a nervous wreck at the same time,” Gonzalez said about how it feels to tattoo somebody. “I enjoy doing it but I’m nervous because I know it has to be right the first time.”

“I’ve always thought of tattooing as a blacksmith trade—you can’t just pick it up—you have to be trained,” said Gonzalez. “It takes time to learn, I’m still learning. And you should be taught by somebody who’s wiser—it takes a lot of dedication.”

I spent a Saturday evening with the police and shot this picture of a minor that was busted for having a water bottle of rum. Unfortunately because of the subject, I wasn’t able to publish it in the paper- but I personally love it. His mom was called and showed up very angry…

An unidentified minor gets a talking to by police and his mother for drinking booze. Photo by Chelsea Sektnan

I’m working on a new “Working Life” story that I’m really excited about. It’s about a pet transportation company based in Hermosa Beach that’s being featured in a new TV show called, “Animal Movers.” The people that work there truly love all creatures great and small… (Story finished and HERE)

Pacific Pet Transport employee Miguel hugs Mr. Cow, a dog that was refused through customs because his cage was too small. Photo by Chelsea Sektnan

Located just 15 miles from Hollywood, the South Bay has been the prime location choice for hundreds of movies and TV shows over the years. Almost daily a director molds our coastline to fit their storyline and landmarks are re-envisioned. For four seasons our ocean-side cities were the focus of the TV show “The O.C” and both versions of “90210″ featured the South Bay. Here’s a sampling of some of the productions filmed in the Beach Cities. Comment on to post to add more…

The official Easy Reader South Bay Movie Map is available as an 18-inch by 24-inch glossy poster for just $9.99 plus $3.25 for postage and handling. The poster is presently available online at makingit.com and at the Easy Reader office. It will soon be available at stores throughout the beach cities. Retailers interested in wholesale pricing should email poster@makingit.com

The official Easy Reader South Bay Movie Map is available as an 18-inch by 24-inch glossy poster for just $9.99 plus $3.25 for postage and handling. The poster is presently available online at makingit.com and at the Easy Reader office. It will soon be available at stores throughout the beach cities. Retailers interested in wholesale pricing should email poster@makingit.com

Photography class at the South Bay Art Department was really fun last weekend! It was a dreary day, so the shadow and light-themed class was pushed to another day, and we designed a whole new project out of what we found in the studio! Thanks for a fun afternoon Mia, you’re one straight-shooting photographer!

If you’re interested in stopping by for a photo class, I teach at the Art Department on Saturday from 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Visit the department’s web page or the photo class Facebook page for more information…

Hermosa Beach police got a surprise Wednesday afternoon after a man driving a white Porsche drove to the police station to drop off a hand grenade he had found in his grandfather’s box of WWII memorabilia.

Officers acted immediately by evacuating City Hall and the surrounding buildings as well as advising local schools to divert their students around the affected area. Jeff Wolfe, the Hermosa Beach resident who found the explosive, was told to hand over his keys while the police department called in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Bomb Squad.

Officers lamented that the bomb was in a Porsche and not another kind of car like a Pontiac Aztek.

“The older they get the more unstable the powder is,” said Interim Police Chief Steve Johnson. “He was a nice well meaning guy, but we have to have caution.”

HBPD Sgt. Robert Higgins said in a press release that the grenade did not appear to be a paperweight, and all indications were that it was live.

“My grandfather recently passed away and I was going through his WWII stuff and, there’s a hand grenade!” Wolfe said. “I didn’t know if it was real or not, so I brought it here. You never know.”

By 2 p.m. the bomb squad was on the scene and had extracted the pineapple grenade from the vehicle. They immediately determined that it wasn’t active and confiscated it with the intent to destroy it later

“It was a legit WWII grenade,” Johnson said. “All the powder’s out of it and the igniting source was removed.”

Wolfe asked if he could keep the memento, but he was denied.

“We don’t want it to end up in the public where we have to respond to it again,” said Johnson.

Wolfe explained that when his grandfather came back from the war he was allowed to bring back the explosive trinket. He also found uniforms and a service pack in the memento chest.

“Nobody got hurt, and the car’s still intact,” said Johnson, as the white Porsche pulled out of the parking lot and drove down the road.

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ABOUT ME

Journalism is evolving - and innovative ideas are more important than ever. I have experience reporting on a wide range of topics with a wide range of tools. My emphasis is on communicating through visuals, but I have adapted to newsprint and excel at writing and covering local issues important to the community. I am always looking for a different angle and strive to inform the reader about the deeper issues with new and engaging ways. I am excited to be part of journalism's evolving future and will take on any challenge with determination and originality.
I am available for freelance work in the Southern California Area. Please contact me for more information.